Gooseberry Cream Crumble (sort of...)

(How to Be A Domestic Goddess)

'Sort of' might be stretching it, given that neither gooseberries nor cream featured anywhere in the dish. I did nick the crumble bit from this recipe though, so surely it vaguely counts?

Of course I have made crumble for decades and decades, sometimes straight, sometimes with a handful of oats or a sprinkle of cinnamon thrown in and other variations on the theme.

But the crumbles of the past pale into insignificance in the face of this beauteous beast.

It's the simplest of tricks. Not the use of half light muscovado, half vanilla sugar. Not the forking through of the sugar (though admittedly, I haven't done it this way before and it's rather good)

The success is all down to one straightforward switch, swapping plain flour for self-raising.

I could spend the next three weeks writing "wow, wow, wow..." but even that would surely be inadequate to pay homage to this lightest of toppings that positively melted in the mouth.

Thank you Nigella. A triumph that will be repeated over and over.